Turkey mine search ends with 301 confirmed victims of fire

By Gul Tuysuz, Ivan Watson and Laura Smith-Spark, CNN

Updated 11:34 AM ET, Sat May 17, 2014

Photos: Coal mine disaster in Turkey30 photos

Coal mine disaster in Turkey – Friends and relatives of dead miners pray at a cemetery on Saturday, May 17. The search for victims of this week's coal mine fire in Soma is now over, with a final death toll of 301, Turkish government officials said Saturday.

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Photos: Coal mine disaster in Turkey30 photos

Coal mine disaster in Turkey – Mourners reach out to touch the coffin of a miner recovered from the Soma mine on May 17.

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Photos: Coal mine disaster in Turkey30 photos

Coal mine disaster in Turkey – A relative offers her prayers next to the grave of a loved one in Soma on Friday, May 16.

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Photos: Coal mine disaster in Turkey30 photos

Coal mine disaster in Turkey – Family members mourn at the grave of a victim on May 16.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – A woman attends the burial of victims in Soma on Thursday, May 15.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – A woman waits on the ground at the disaster scene Wednesday, May 14.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – A man weeps over the body of a miner being pulled from the mine in Soma on May 14.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – People gather near rows of open graves for victims in Soma on May 14.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – A rescue worker prepares stretchers for the search for miners on May 14.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, center, surrounded by security, visits the coal mine on May 14. Hundreds have taken to the streets of Istanbul and Ankara since the disaster in protest of the government and poor safety regulations. Unions have called for strikes across the country on May 15.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – The crowd reacts as rescue workers carry the body of a miner in Soma on May 14.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – Miners and relatives wait for news outside the mine on May 14.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – A family member cries as rescue workers carry a survivor from the mine on May 14.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – Miners rest after hours of working with the rescue operation on May 14.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – A miner covers his face after being affected by toxic gas during rescue operations on May 14.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – Rescue workers carry a miner to an ambulance on May 14.

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Photos: Coal mine disaster in Turkey30 photos

Coal mine disaster in Turkey – Rescue workers carry a survivor from the mine on May 14.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – People await news about relatives in front of a Soma hospital on May 14.

Coal mine disaster in Turkey – Miners wait outside the mine in the early hours of May 14.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – Rescuers help carry away a miner on May 14.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – Relatives try to get information outside a Soma hospital on Tuesday, May 13.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – An injured miner gets pulled from the mine on May 13.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – Rescue workers and relatives gather at the mine on May 13.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – An injured miner is carried out by rescue workers. The mine shaft is about two-thirds of a mile -- or 1 kilometer -- underground, a disaster agency said.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – Miners stand by after the explosion. About 100 rescuers, dozens of ambulances and helicopters were dispatched to the scene.

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Coal mine disaster in Turkey – Miners and relatives wait outside the mine on May 13. Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said officials turned an exit pipe "into a clean air pipe," so "there is fresh air being given in places where there is no fire."

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Protests over Turkey mine disaster – People try to help an injured man who was hit by the jet of a police water cannon on Friday, May 16, during a protest against the government after a mine explosion in Soma, Turkey. Hundreds have taken to the streets across the country since nearly 300 miners died in a mine fire near Soma on May 13, protesting the government and a lack of safety regulations. Unions called for strikes May 15.

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Protests over Turkey mine disaster – Police use water cannons and tear gas to disperse people gathered to commemorate victims and protest the government's labor policy in Izmir, Turkey, on May 16.

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Protests over Turkey mine disaster – Yusuf Yerkel, an aide to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, kicks a person who is being wrestled to the ground by two police officers during protests in Soma, Turkey, on Wednesday, May 14.

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Protests over Turkey mine disaster – Riot police try to stop protesters attacking the offices of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party in Soma on May 14.

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Protests over Turkey mine disaster – Protesters riot outside the Justice and Development Party office in Soma.

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Protests over Turkey mine disaster – People march to the Soma offices of the Justice and Development Party.

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Protests over Turkey mine disaster – A protester is detained in front of the General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration headquarters in Istanbul on May 14.

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Protests over Turkey mine disaster – Riot police use a water cannon to disperse protesters in Istanbul.

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Protests over Turkey mine disaster – Protesters clash with riot police in Ankara on May 14.

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Protests over Turkey mine disaster – Police arrest a protester in Ankara on May 14.

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On Friday, police in the western city used tear gas, plastic pellets and a water cannon on protesters angered by the government's response.

The protesters, dressed mostly in black, chanted "Don't sleep, Soma, remember your dead!" as they passed through city streets a few miles from the disaster site, trying to reach a statue honoring miners.

Amid a rising tide of discontent, local authorities have banned protests in Soma and apparently clamped down on those taking part.

Lawyers' representatives told Turkish broadcaster DHA that eight lawyers and 25 other citizens were detained Saturday. The lawyers were in town to try to help represent families of the dead miners.

Abdurrahman Savas, the governer of Manisa province, where Soma is located, declined to say how many people had been detained over the protests.

But he told reporters that the authorities took the decision Friday to ban rallies and demonstrations in Soma in order to maintain peace and security.

He said that "this is not to prevent freedom of expression."

Distrust of the government is running high in certain sectors of society, with some voicing doubts about the official count of those missing, while others question the fact no one has yet taken responsibility for the tragedy.

Some are also critical of the authorities' use of tear gas and water cannon against demonstrators.

Erdogan's missteps

Public anger has been fueled in part by Erdogan's own missteps while visiting the scene of the disaster Wednesday.

First, Erdogan's comments to relatives of dead and injured miners, in which he described the disaster as par for the course in a dangerous business, were seen as highly insensitive and drew scathing criticism.

Then video taken on the same day in Soma showed Erdogan telling a man "don't be nasty," according to the footage aired Friday by DHA. The remarks initially reported and translated by DHA were confirmed by a CNN native Turkish speaker.

"What happened, happened. It is from God... If you boo the country's prime minister, you get slapped," Erdogan is heard saying.

That was after another video clip emerged showing a crowd outside a grocery store angrily booing Erdogan. As the Prime Minister entered the crowded store, he appeared to put his arm around the neck of a man who was later identified as a miner.

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Family: 'Let this mine take my life too!'

After the confrontation, the video captured what appeared to be Erdogan's security guards beating the same man to the floor. The miner said later that Erdogan slapped him, possibly by mistake. He wants an apology for the way he was treated by the Prime Minister's staff.

In addition, a photograph surfaced Wednesday of an aide to Erdogan kicking a protester, an image that quickly became a symbol of the anger felt by many against the government, and amid mounting questions over safety practices at the mine.

Huseyin Celik, a spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, dismissed the grocery store incident and said the image of the aide, Yusuf Yerkel, kicking the protester was misleading.

Yerkel was quoted by Turkey's semiofficial Anadolu news agency Thursday as saying that he had been deeply saddened by the previous day's events. "I am sad that I could not keep my calm in the face of all the provocation, insults and attacks that I was subjected to that day," he reportedly said.

Among other issues, mine officials indicated Friday that workers may not have had access to an emergency refuge where they could have sheltered from the flames and choking fumes.

Site manager Akin Celik told reporters that the mine had closed one emergency refuge when excavation work moved to a lower area. Miners were building, but had not finished, a new safety chamber at the lower level, he said.

The owner of the company, Alp Gurman, said the mine met the highest standards laid out by the law in Turkey. The company, he said, had no legal obligation to build safety chambers.

Asked about that issue, Minister of Labor and Social Security Faruk Celik defended Turkey's workplace safety act and said it was set up within the framework of EU regulations, according to CNN Turk.

"This is a dynamic area," he said, adding that it is the duty of each company to ensure workers' safety needs are met. "Could people be sent to death because a certain sentence is not in the regulations?" he said.

Istanbul Technical University said it had dropped Gurman and a fellow Soma Holding manager, Ismet Kasapoglu, from an advisory panel in its mining faculty, following protests and an occupation by students at the university, CNN Turk reported.

Yildiz, speaking to journalists earlier Saturday, when the death toll stood at 299, said 15 bodies had been recovered overnight. Most have been returned to their families but DNA testing is being carried out on the remains of 13 people, the Energy Minister said.

Fumes from a new fire, a few hundred yards from the one that broke out Tuesday, hindered search and recovery efforts Saturday, Yildiz said.

Initial reports said the main fire was sparked by a transformer explosion, but Celik told reporters Friday that the cause of the fire was still unknown.

Asked what had happened, he said, "We don't know either. Never seen anything like this before. We are trying to find out."

Political bonfire

Hundreds have also taken to the streets this week in anti-government protests in Istanbul and Ankara, with police answering, in some cases, with water cannons and tear gas.

As Erdogan took a stroll through the city, onlookers showered him with deafening jeers as well as chants of "Resign, Prime Minister!"

"He was feeling all these pains in his heart," he said. "Everybody knows that our Prime Minister is always with the people, and always feels the pain of the people. Otherwise, he wouldn't get such a high support in eight elections in (the) last 10 years."

But the disaster opened up an old political wound.

Opposition politician Ozgur Ozel from the Manisa region, which includes Soma, filed a proposal in late April to investigate Turkish mines after repeated deadly accidents.

Erdogan's government rejected the proposal. It claimed that the mine, owned by SOMA Komur Isletmeleri A.S., had passed recent inspections.

A Turkish engineers' association criticized mine ventilation and safety equipment this week as being "insufficient and old."

A lack of safety inspections has caused 100 coal mines to be closed in the last three years, according to Turkey's Energy Ministry.

President Abdullah Gul, speaking as he visited Soma on Thursday, said he was sure the investigation already begun would "shed light" on what regulations are needed. "Whatever is necessary will be done," he said.